global warming, there is no doubt something is happening BUT?

Question

i just read a nasa report that shows the sun over the last several years is getting hotter and is growing in size,, could this be a factor

Answer 1

Of course it's a factor. There are many factors that affect the climate. The sun has gone through such cycles millions of times.

However, the one factor that is different today than at any other time in the worlds existence is the level of greenhouse gasses put into the atmosphere by man. This one factor is so significant that it alone will produce more drastic climate changes than at any other solar heating cycle ever.

We are the wild card that changes everything that has happened before in climate change.

Answer 2

I tend to agree with the scientist that don't work for GW. His politics are very one sided and in fact he has withheld scientific reports and medical breakthroughs from being distributed largely because it doesn't match his views. Cut funding for medical research and science. That will help us all!

So if all of you choose to believe that we have no part in global warming then believe it, but as a whole we all need to come to a consensus. We have more problems on our hands than global warming. Global pollution is a more real problem than warming. Think about it. I mean what happens to a fruit tree when it's overcome with aphids? The fruit becomes distastefull. Wrong word more like unedeble.

In any case we are populating the earth at an alarming rate. It might not be a popular view but in my opinion in earths defence a catastrophic event might be the best thing for earth. Not for us!

Answer 3

We measure the amount of heat we receive from the sun using something called the Solar Constant. This is the total energy received from the sun by way of incoming electromagnetic radiation and is measured across a unit area of one square metre on the outer edge of the atmosphere perpendicular to the Sun's rays for a period of one year. The SI unit is therefore Wm²yr.

In simple terms, this means we have a value for the amount of heat we receive from the sun. That value is 1366Wm²yr. It's not a fixed value - it's A CONSTANT but it's not constant.

We can measure this figure accurately, we can also measure a similar figure with even greater accuracy at ground stations. When we look back at the figures over recent decades there has been a slight decline in the amount of energy we have been receiving from the Sun. Not enough to make an appreciable difference to the climate and you'd need years worth of data to spot any trend but enough, if there were no other factors involved, to cause a very slight cooling.

The Sun most definitely affects our climate and is the source of 99.97% of heat on Earth but climatic changes resulting from solar variation are very slow ones. The last event of any significance that was influenced by the sun was the period known as the Maunder Minimum.

This occured approx 300 years ago and was the culmination of approx 700 years of generally declining sunspot activity during which time the average global temp fell by 0.8°C. The Maunder Minimum was specifically a period from about 1650 to 1720 of almost no sunspot activity at all.

TO SUMMARISE: The Sun affects our climate but only over long periods of time, there has been no significant changes in solar output for a long time and those that have occurred would cause a very slight cooling.

Answer 4

Not really. That does not account for all the global warming that occured before the recent solar output rise. Some scientists think it may have accelerated global warming a little (maybe 15%). However--indications are that its a minor factor, if one at all.

The "skeptics" have been quacking about this for a while now. Apparently they are too ignorant of even the most basic science to know that a cause (here, solar output) has to PRECEDE the event (global warming).

No onder everyone is just laughing at them!

Answer 5

I'm sure it is a factor, But the important thing to ask is how big that factor is. NASA has done a report, and I'm sure it will be followed up and taken into the equations.

It is important to note that this faactor and others like them do not disprove the greenhose gas theory.

It is also important to note how foolish it would be to change one's view of the scientific consencus with every report that comes out. The scientists have a job to do, let them get on with it. It falls on the rest of us to act on thier findings, otherwise all that research will be totally fruitless.

Answer 6

Yes, as the sun heats the oceans, it increases water vapor, the most important greenhouse gas, through the process of evaporation. Increased water vapor causes an increase in the green house effect. There is also studies that say increased solar activity decreases cloud cover, which allows more heat energy to reach the surface of the planet. Global cloud cover and other factors reflect the sunlight back towards space. If there are few clouds, then we have more heat.

If you look at the geological record, CO2 doesn't correlate with temperature very well, in fact it usually follows temperature if there is any correlation at all.

Answer 7

Yes, I think this could also be a factor and should be looked at, but we also have to see if we can neutralize our contribution to global warming and pollution.

Supposedly the sun will eventually grow beyond the orbit of mercury and venus, causing the earth to be unihabitable, but this isn't supposed to happen until billions of years into the future. Before that time, hopefully we will have figured out how to build the spacecraft in Star Trek, Star Wars, and other science fiction movies and will have left this third rock from the sun.

We have a chance, a "window of opportunity", to improve living conditions on earth, for ourselfves and for our children. We must take this opportunity to effect positive change, and hope that the sun, another source of global warming, will not also make earth too hot for us in the near future.

Answer 8

You know before the great flood the bible speaks of there was a water canopy surrounding the earth . I'm sure there was water on the earth but there was allot in the atmosphere keeping the entire earth warm making it a green lush tropical Paradise then it cooled and the water fell back to earth .It could just be a way of mother nature replenishing all the vegetation that we destroyed . Maybe a cycle but we are still going to have to adapt

Answer 9

No.

1. If the Sun is causing the current warmth, then we're getting more energy, and the whole atmosphere should be getting warmer. But if it's greenhouse, then we're getting the same amount of energy, but it's being distributed differently: more heat is trapped at the surface, and less heat is escaping to the stratosphere. So if it's the Sun, the stratosphere should be warming, but if it's greenhouse, the stratosphere should be cooling.

In fact, the stratosphere has been on a long-term cooling trend ever since we've been keeping radiosonde balloon records in the 1950's. Here's the data:
http://hadobs.metoffice.com/hadat/images/update_images/global_upper_air.png
http://hadobs.metoffice.com/hadat/hadat2/hadat2_monthly_global_mean.txt
http://cdiac.ornl.gov/trends/temp/sterin/sterin.html

2. If it's the Sun, we're getting more energy during the day, and daytime temperatures should be rising fastest. But if it's greenhouse, we're losing less heat at night, and nighttime temperatures should be rising fastest. So if it's the sun, the difference between day and night temperatures should be increasing, but if it's greenhouse, the day-night difference should be decreasing.

In fact, the daily temperature range has been decreasing throughout the 20th century. Here's the science:
http://ams.allenpress.com/perlserv/?request=get-abstract&doi=10.1175%2F1520-0450(1984)023%3C1489:DDTRIT%3E2.0.CO%3B2
http://ams.allenpress.com/perlserv/?request=get-abstract&doi=10.1175%2F1520-0477(1993)074%3C1007%3AANPORG%3E2.0.CO%3B2
http://www.bom.gov.au/bmrc/clfor/cfstaff/jma/2004GL019998.pdf

3. Total solar irradiance has been measured by satellite since 1978, and during that time it has shown the normal 11-year cycle, but no long-term trend. Here's the data:
http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/stp/SOLAR/solarda3.html

4. Scientists have looked closely at the solar hypothesis and have strongly refuted it. Here's the peer-reviewed science:
http://www.pubs.royalsoc.ac.uk/media/proceedings_a/rspa20071880.pdf
http://www.mpa-garching.mpg.de/mpa/publications/preprints/pp2006/MPA2001.pdf

Answer 10

No. The changes in the sun are small. And they're now going the wrong way.

Climatologists know all about changes in the Sun, which are measured by many independent people. Solar radiation has actually been decreasing a bit lately. Proof:

"Recent oppositely directed trends in solar
climate forcings and the global mean surface
air temperature", Lockwood and Frolich (2007), Proc. R. Soc. A
doi:10.1098/rspa.2007.1880

http://www.pubs.royalsoc.ac.uk/media/proceedings_a/rspa20071880.pdf

Answer 11

the sun is getting hotter and burning off more engery into the atmosphere. the heat rays are coming and warming earth -- under normal circumstances though, the heat may be reflected by the clouds or once it comes down to earth dissipated back out through the atmosphere. because there is an excess of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere now (largely due to human emissions) the heat is trapped and cannot escape back out into space. the trapped heat just gets warmer and warmer as more of the sun's energy comes to earth and that is why our planet is warming.

if we cut our co2 emissions and thereby reduce the amount of carbon in the atmosphere, the heat will be able to get back out and earth will eventually begin to cool back to the regular temperatures we are used to.